Mario and Luigi Partners in Time Novelized-ish!
by CombinedSyndicates
Summary: A Novelization (with some edits for the sake of convenience and preference, of course) of a Mario and Luigi DS classic. The Shroobs have invaded the Mushroom Kingdom of Yesteryear! Follow the quartet of the Mario Brothers and their past selves as they journey throughout a Shroob-infested past Mushroom Kingdom.
1. Away we Go

_**All Characters in this Story belong to Nintendo and Alphadream, not me.**_

Ah, yes, here I am. Your narrator. A being of great knowledge of a bygone era. The very same era you will be told about now! Heh heh, now THAT is a segue, right? Ahem, onto your story.

_**It begins on the mysterious planet of Shroobs!**_

A planet of convenient purple color and white polka-dots, teeming with life bearing those very same features. Yes, the Shroobs! Creepy little Alien creatures that look suspiciously similar to their Toad counterparts and have on them the exact same features of their planet itself. Double Convenience!

These things had developed advanced technology over the years, like flying saucers, laser guns and a Shroob-ifying serum. And don't forget the dastardly drinks they created! Anyway, after spending millennia on this sickly planet, the Shroobs grew ambitious and desperate, and yearned for a new home to call their own. And, after years of searching, they set their oval eyes onto the lush, vibrant planet of the Toads, Koopas and various other races, the planet of the Mushroom Kingdom. With an untapped landscape of limitless potential at the Shroobs' fingertips, they set off across the stars en route to their greatest achievement yet!

_**Meanwhile, In Peach's Castle...**_

"My my, Masters Mario and Luigi! It is simply capital for you to show up! The princess is waiting for you two, oh how joyous it'll be! Even for her...drawbacks as a youngling. Never mind that, just simply walk forward and banter. I'm sure you tykes can do it," a still-spry Toadsworth explained (and most likely to no avail) to a pair of baby Mario Brothers jumping about with energy. And, well, spacial ineptitude, albeit after a few minutes of trying to snub out where to go the duo went forth into a...room full of incapacitated Toads?

**"I say! What's this hullaboo? What of the Princess? What of my job?"**

Toadsworth yelled in confusion as the Baby Brothers could do nothing but poke at the Toads' lifeless bodies curiously, and I mean, they couldn't feel it, so why not?

**Bwa Ha Ha!**

Then came the quite talkative Prince Bowser in his chubby appearance and with the young Princess Peach perched perfectly on his petite forehead, standing so statue-like that it'd be almost as if she wanted to be kidnapped, hrm... "I, Prince Bowser, Prince of Koopas, Awesome, Gnarliness and every other epic epithet given to me graciously, am kidnapping the Princess as I speak! How cool is that?" Bowser barked.

Toadsworth scurried to the right of the Prince, and turned quickly. "Absolute Poppycock! I rather imagine that YOU'LL DO NO SUCH THING TO HER! EN GARDE, FIEND!" he went into an offensive stance, even pretending to have a foil in his hand. Of course, Bowser just scalded Toadsworth with flames, who promptly fell over unconscious after the fire extinguished itself nicely. The fiend cocked his head towards Mario as his brother courageously stood back to take a gander at Toadsworth and a crawling Peach.

"You're next, Super Diaper Bro! 'En Garde!'" he mocked before charging in at a prepared Mario. The soon-to-be-plumber was quick on his feet and swiftly jumped on the plump head of Bowser, startling him and forcing him to waddle back. "Excellent hit, young sir! Make sure to time your jump precisely! Now clobber the scoundrel!" a recently revitalized Toadsworth cheered on after rolling to Mario's side.

"Grr, I'll make Ravioli out of you, Mario! GAH!" Bowser opened his mouth wide and spit a ball of fire about the size of Mario himself, who showcased his able agility by jumping over it right before the flame burned his backside, then leaping forward to pounce on a Prince that was awestruck by this masterpiece of a move.

**"Blargh, Gaak, Oof..."**

The Young Prince Bowser bellowed as he fell over right on the floor just as he had done to Toadsworth before, crumpling up his bib and letting his face flab droop straight down. "I'm a Prince! A PRINCE! I can't lose to you stinking babies! Bluuurgh..." he let out another bout of anger before looking down on the floor in defeat, the Babies on the other hand rejoicing in tandem with synced jumps and hand gestures. With Bowser defeated, what could go wron-

**BRRZTTT, BRZTTT...**

Suddenly, lights flashed out from the windows as an ominous sound of buzzing and beeping could be clearly heard outside. The Babies, completely oblivious to this, simply put their fingers to their chins and thought deeply.

**BANG!**

Now stronger sheets of light pierced the window sills and unto the castle interior as pieces of the wall careened down from the ceiling and the babies could do nothing but frail around their arms in absolute terror, their eyes wide open as Peach didn't actually seem to care.

An entire armada had appeared right above the castle towers out of thin air! Hundreds of UFOs lined up in position to reign blast after blast of destructive plasma shots straight at the castle's exterior, causing massive damage to the once-pristine architecture. Oh, what will happen next?

**A few decades later...**

**What's this? Famed inventor Professor E. Gadd has developed his own Time Machine!**

Powered by the mysterious but beautifully glimmering Crystal Shards, this contraption could (apparently) travel through time! Wow! Of course, not one to miss out on a publicity stunt, the not-so-prescient Professor would showcase the machine right off in the Castle's main room going back in time before the audience's eyes, and not only that, carrying the Princess herself along with a pair of Toads!

Famed celebrities and luminaries from far and wide came to Peach's Castle to witness this historic event, like the Mario Brothers, who'd saved the Kingdom from much...terror over the years. This thing would be a nice time to relax from all the saving the Princess stuff, right?

And, as usual Peach's able steward Toadsworth was fraught with fret, babbling about how dangerous and foolish this endeavor was, although all of these concerns were indeed put to the wayside for the sake of plot-I mean bravery! To take on such a feat of time travel, the trio of people inside the little doohickey had to possess massive amounts of courage to even attempt this, right? Or they were just stupid, either or...

"Princess! Please oh please return in wellness, your majesty! I say, I am simply beside myself with wariness!

E. Gadd chuckled a bit. "No need to bawl already, my little machine's as safe as can be. With all its seatbelts and safety chutes and cupholders, why, there's a 99.9999999999999..." He went on a for a few more minutes. "...9999999% chance that the Princess will return healthy and well, I guarantee it, by the percentage."

Toadsworth simply turned away, and gagged, "THE HORROR!" before keeling over face-first unconscious on the ground like a certain turtle had decades prior. Luigi and one of the Toads scurried over to the downed Toadsworth and frightenedly looked down on him. "Wake up, Toadsworth, I need my promotion-I mean come on, wake up!" he blurted out. Luigi simply clutched his hat and said "Oh No!" in his usual rough Italian accent. Mario and another Toad walked forward. "Wow, he worried so hard he knocked himself out! Now THAT's dedication," the Toad remarked. He then turned to a Mario who just stared at the fallen Toadsworth with a faceless expression. "Mario, Toadsworth has a Refreshroom nicely stored in his room, could ya fetch it for him?"

Mario nodded quickly as the Lakitu armed with a camera floated up and pointed his finger Southeast-ward. "The 'shroom's in a block in his room, can't miss it. Also, I'm curious, how's your jumping doing?" the Toad asked. Mario jumped high in the air, prompting a quick bout of clapping from the awestruck Toad. "Don't get carried away this time! We're counting on you!" the Toad resumed before Mario aptly ran out into the hallway. After some running through the spacious in-between rooms of the castle, the plumber had finally found Toadsworth's room: a mish-mosh of nicely organized plant pots, coffee cups and books strewn over bookcases and tabletops, completed with a large bed clad with a star pillow and a garden square where a yellow question mark block was conveniently placed. Mario retrieved the Refreshroom from the block with a perfectly timed jump and headed out back into the main room...

Mario came in to see Toadsworth laying with eyes-closed on a stretcher that was near-perfect for his size, and three Toads along with Luigi huddled around him. One of these Toads, fit with appropriate medical attire, was inspecting Toadsworth closely. "Toadsworth, any final words? Can I have your cane?" the Toad to the right grievously asked. " s..." the old man could barely get out. "Doc! SPEAK, man! Will Toadsworth recover?" the Toad to the bottom worriedly questioned. The Doctor, hands behind him, turned and walked a few paces north,

"Oh, the prognosis is very, very grim...I'm afraid our dear, dear Toadsworth has startled himself into a state of...

**SHROOMSHOCK."**

The other Toads gasped in horror as Luigi obliviously shrugged. "Without the reviving properties of the Refreshroom there's naught we can do. Toadsworth will be left to be unconscious forev-" he continued, and then was cut off by a Mario who leapt forward to the stretcher's side somewhat peeved off and tossed the much-needed Refreshroom onto Toadsworth's unmoving body. Mario shot his thumbs up as Toadsworth's crusty eyes slowly opened. Out of nowhere, Toadsworth rocketed into the air and posed with his cane gloriously as the rest gasped before everyone faced up in anticipation of the Time Machine's arrival.

To everyone's utter shock, the machine returned all beat up and bruised, windows cracked and the hull partially broken. "Well, take a look at that! The time machine's returned! Something's amiss, though, what could've gone haywire?" E. Gadd asked himself. Toadsworth, clearly not caring one bit, rolled down close up to the thing and happily said, "Welcome home, Princess! How was your stay there?" The doors opened. "Your majesty, I've been fraught with so, so much-" Red eyes emerged from the doohickey as then green limbs clutched outward, revealing a terrifying monster!

**"BLARGH!"**

Immediately, Luigi scurried off away from the beast. "Master Luigi, oh where are you going!?" an aghast Toadsworth turned backward before being sent careening into the hallway by the alien's hand. Mario opportunely jumped to the side of the monstrosity and it did the same, grunting and charging forward in a spin move at the prepared plumber. Mario jerked up high and stomped on the creature's bulbous hand, forcing it to step far backwards. "Good Show! Beat that buffoonish barbarian's brains in, Master Mario!" Toadsworth lauded Mario's performance from the sidelines, although fled back after a squawk from the Shroob. The Shroob motioned again, starting to spin wildly fast and sprung at a determined Mario. He appropriately dodged the assailment with a fine hop, allowing his foe to meander into the wall haphazardly. Mario raced to his enemy and carried out a spectacular somersault that ended with him finishing off the thing with an even more powerful tread on its head, knocking it out on the floor. "Excellent move! You are the master!" Toadsworth praised the plumber once more, safe from aggressive screeching.

Meanwhile, one of the Toads perused the much-perforated Time Machine to no avail, coming back and explaining, "No sign of Peach! No, NO, NOOO! That disgusting, awful monster..." E. Gadd merely moved to investigate the downed creature, saying, "Just take 'er easy, now. It's a good thing she wasn't this feller's breakfast." Then, the Professer pulled out a portable little thing with dual screens, "My DS time radar puts the Princess somewhere out in the Kingdom of Yesteryear..." "Time Radar, TIME RADAR? You just made some balonie up! Where'd this monster come from then, Mr. Time Radar...time radar, are you kidding me?" the Toad said to himself at the end. "That I have no idea. And with the machine all dinged up, we're not going nowhere..." Suddenly, an arms-flailing Luigi appeared out of nowhere. "What's that, sonny? Calm down and yap slowly! A mysterious hole has appeared in the garden? Luigi, that's very inappropria-wait really? Hm, it's possible that the reappearance of the machine inexplicably tore holes in the time continuum..." E. Gadd walked forward and pointed southward. "To the Garden, Fellers!" E. Gadd and the Toads went off right away as Mario and Luigi stood behind to talk out tagging along with Mario on this little adventure in their usual gibberish. Just as they formed a group, though, one of the Toads came to them.

"Hey, Luigi, why don't you just stay here and protect the room from...suspecting villains. It'll be fun, I assure you." Luigi vigorously shaked his head. "Well, if you're gonna go with Mario, at least show off your jump. Mario's got a monster one." Luigi feebly lunged a few feet or so into the air. "Come on! Put some more muscle into it! I mean, show him yours, Mario." Mario nodded, and launched himself more than twice as high up before gracefully landing down on his feet. Luigi, accepting the challenge, jumped up with a similar level of smoothness, his tallness even making his jump look higher than Mario's, before perfectly sticking the landing just as Mario had. "Nice! Now go out there and do your thing, you two!" he cheered the duo on as they ran out after E. Gadd and the others. Luigi did take a moment to gag thereafter taking a peep at the Shroob, though.

**"IT'S A TIME HOLE!"**

E. Gadd readied his glasses as he glared at the whirl of yellow and red hues. "Yessiree, this here hole's of the Time variety. Look at it, beautiful, ain't it?" The brothers quickly darted to the portal's side and gawked with similar awe. Luigi, wanting to get a closer look, jumped unto the side of the portal's exterior, kneeling down to inspect the thing at a short distance. "Careful there, young feller! If I'm right, which most of the time I am, that opening leads back in time!" the Professer warned, although Luigi was still in this precarious position. "Yes, to a far younger Mushroom Kingdom. Question is, to WHERE in the Kingdom's Yesteryear!? And, well, if a feller were to ignore me and jump in, could he even make it back..." he continued. Mario immediately sparked with an idea, and explained it to him. "Hrm? Use it to rescue Peach?" Mario nodded eagerly. E. Gadd stood still for a moment. "Huh. Now there's an idea...should've been mine though," he whispered to himself. "I'd bet dollars to donuts that's our absolute best chance at saving 'er..."

**"MASTER MARIO!"**

Abruptly, Toadsworth crashed into the Time Hole with his stretcher, causing Luigi to lose balance and plunge straight into the grasp of the portal in an impressive light show. The others wheezed in horror as Luigi disappeared, albeit Toadsworth seemed unphased. "M-M-Master Mario! The Princess! Where is Princess Peach!? And what were those flashing lights? And what's that strange hole? I demand answers, my good lad!"

In a bout of bravery, Mario got a running start to the left of the Time Hole and leapt straight into the thing's whirl, causing even Toadsworth to be indeed fraught with worry...

Now the question was: where would our daring (ish) duo end up next?

**To be continued...**


	2. Holli Jolli Folly

Ah, yes. The hearth is flaming nicely with a stable orange hue, the furniture has been polished well, and even the bookcase isn't looking terrible! What a perfect situation to continue off with our story...mind the two-month absence, please. I was...skydiving. Now then, onto your feature (literary) presentation!

**In the depths of Past Mushroom Kingdom plainland...**

There was a strange little patch of beige dirt in between large stretches of green grass and brown-bark trees surrounded by fertile cherry bushes and angry-eyed flowers beset lakeside. To add to the bizarreness of this little plot of bare soil, there was a mound about three-and-a-half feet tall and three-Italians across, further graced at the surface with a spiral of yellows and purples that spun clockwise slowly but elegantly. The shrubbery and saplings simply stood watch towards the mass, awaiting its next action...

**...WOOSH!**

Without further spectating a man in a blue-green get-up cannoned out of the swirl's epicenter in a cascade of multicolored stars and made a snappy nosedive in his arc, falling straight into the ground below head-first, his hat miraculously still atop his head. He could only let out a few loud squawks before his impact, his eyes now closed shut, a gargantuan gust of wind left in the collision's wake, as his arms and feet shifted downward, defeated. Sadly for him, this wasn't the worst to come.

**...Tut!**

A figure fashioned in blue and red lofted out of the paradoxical whirlpool gently and agilely like an eagle through the wind, smoothly landing on the green man's posterior with triumph...and then facing downward to see that he was standing on his brother's butt. Flabbergasted by this observation, he leapt off nimbly and cocked his head down, examining Luigi's...scenario. And, after a few seconds of nothingness, jumping up continuously to wake his unfortunately-situated sibling up. Of course, he was interrupted in this, as an interesting-looking piece of two-legged business-apparel landed at the edge of the dune.

**"...Blegh..."**

Luigi did indeed have the right to blurt such a guttural grunt out on this occasion, as this being luckily thumped right down on his gluteus maximus miraculously in the same way Mario had seconds ago. "Keep a keen eye on your forceful nudging, Professor! Jostling me into time vortexes is an unnecessary operation!" it bantered, chittering its teeth somehow at the curling portal at hand. Mario simply took a close gander at whatever this thing was before returning to his usual frantic vaulting in place to get its attention. This master stratagem seemed to have worked, as the storage option slid its boots across Luigi's backside (that incurred more grunting) to face the Red one in full.

"Ah, you must be the sanguine plumber I was conveniently sent to search for." The sanguine plumber in question nodded swiftly, putting his conversational partner in a daze of turning back left and right. "In the information endowed to me by the Professor, there was supposed to be a certain...compadre dressed in light green accompanying you..." Mario again faced downward at his brother's rear-end, still perplexed by his unlucky position.

**"...HRRNGH!"**

And so the unluckily-positioned plumber sprung up in rage, clattering his marble teeth and clutching onto his hat, clearly riled at this point by all the motionings on his derriere. "Goodness gracious!" it pouted. "I'm, I...apologize for that." Mario scurried over face-to-face at his irate sibling and calmed him down with electric hand gesticulations and frenetic word-delivery, as he was accustomed to.

Luigi sprouted a "Hmm..." to signify his recollection on this sudden figure's sterling character, as Mario turned back to the 'person' in question, giving a short hop. "I'm exhilarated to come into contact with such a dynamic duo like yourselves. My appropriate dubbing is Stuffwell, quite the good choice on the Professor's part, don't you agree?" One half of this dynamic duo mustered a short cough.

"...Anyway, indeed Professor E. Gadd created me on one of his good-intentioned inventing-sprees. I am what is named (rather uncreatively) as a suitcase, businessman's best friend. He delegated me all the way here in order for myself to act as your personal guide and aide." Another cough was heard from the other half.

"Naturally, 'aide' is UNDOUBTEDLY precise...I'm more than just a chute able to contain all your equipment, even if a vital task at hand. I carry with me ADVANCED apparati for data graphing...and BATTLE-READY sensors...and, er, nice pens." The two before Stuffwell thought for a moment, expressions of absolute ambivalence well-visible on their appearances. "Well...all in all, by useful-object standards (of which are very high) I am state of the art! I'll be a HUGE addition to your journey ahead."

The plumbers' faces grew a bit more positive, and the sanguine one of course leapt in approval. "Now, why don't we get cracking, gentlemen? To begin, I'll give you an EXCLUSIVE tour of my innards for you to gawk and salivate over the storage-space right at your fingertips!" Stuffwell laid himself out, letting the brothers peep in to the...wonders of state-of-the-art suitcasery. "Hm, hm? Do you like the FREE stopwatch and INDIVIDUAL item sections, yes?" Mario reluctantly nodded while his bro doodled a bit in the dirt.

"By all means, this isn't even scratching my well-polished (and groomed) surface. There are FAR more pieces of excellently-prepared gadgetry to be utilized at your every command, brothers of complementary colors." He conformed into his original bipedal state and stared eagerly at the two. "Well then, we've not any more time left for further introductionals. BACK TO (the) ADVENTURE...AT HAND!" The sentient packing device backflipped straight onto Mario's back, attaching to it, as Mario blinked thrice, oblivious to what had just occurred (if that was even possible at this point from a person with THAT much experience).

**SHRRRRRRMMM...**

The bros spun towards the Time Hole, which was auspiciously sinking straight back into the ground, causing veritable stupor into Luigi as he watched in terror as his one-way ticket out of here vanished without a trace. This didn't waver him though, as he valiantly dug through the same spot with rigor with his eyes bulging out, sending dust and soil every which way, including into Mario's face (that'll get him even for the previous 'event').

He expounded on this, scooting in an elliptical orbit around the original mark with even faster hand-movement. After about five seconds of this, he stood up and hopped a few times, hands on hips and head shaking down to the ground. His brother tiptoed over to him, again attempting to cheer his despairing sibling up. This indeed, was to no avail, and Luigi knelt down and sobbed sharply in a constant stream of tears...

Being a grown man, he was able to shrug off this five-minute-long crying and returned to an organized formation with his teammate-through-time, wiping off the moisture from his face quickly. Lakitu snapped a picture of the two on their way as they barged eastward towards unforeseen territory...or not. Much to their satisfaction, they came across a batch of flat 'steps' of rock each ascending in height leading to the expanse of skyscraping mushroom 'towers' not far off. As Luigi slid his hands together with a sly grin, Stuffwell latched off onto the ground.

**"Ahem!"**

The Green Bean stopped in his devious tracks, begrudgingly listening in. "I'm afraid I haven't told you a CRUCIAL bit of information yet. You see, the process of Time Travel is a bit laborious on one's muscles, and casually performing your everyday feat of athleticism is not the best idea." Luigi crossed his arms and kept his smug expression, hoisting himself up and slicing through the air...as several cracks could be heard and he drooped down at the first step's tip.

"Naturally, you'll have to put a bit more effort into your jumps than normal to curb this nuisance." Mario stooped groundward, preparing himself, before rocketing into the air and sticking the landing perfectly. Soon enough, Luigi joined in on the fun, even if the accuracy was a bit off. "Indubitably, you will get better at this as the quest persists. Now then, BACK TO (the) ADVENTURE...AT HAND!"

Stuffwell settled nicely onto Mario's hind and the Brothers hopped up to a vast area of little rock stubs with question-mark-boxes about. They capitalized on these, of course, snatching up some coins before finding themselves at a row of taller steps with short but still-surmountable gaps betwixt them. "You haven't participated in jumping cooperatively in ages, have you? Well, here's your time to shine."

Mario turned back to the gaps, rowing his hand forward for Luigi, who did the same. Except, the outcome wasn't quite alike, as his jump went a bit short, forcing him to clutch at the rim of the rock. Fortunately, he was able to grab Mario's outretched hand, hoisting himself up to the surface and smiling back warmly. After further platforming across these...platforms, they made their way onto another stretch of flatness with different-colored and lettered blocks floating high, the stairway ahead blocked by a about ten feet of wall.

"Ah, yes, perplexing puzzles are perched at our doorstep! How wonderful!" The Brothers glanced at the blocks, confused. "Simply put, each of you jump up against the flying brown-edifice of which's color corresponds to that of your overalls and the persnickety problem will be solved!" The two blinked twice and shrugged. "Alright, by that I meant hit red fist against red block and green fist against green block. Got it?" They nodded immediately, as Stuffwell sighed. Thirty seconds of block-bashing ensued, and the wall descended, allowing the Time-mates through.

**BRRRM, BRRM...**

The two glared every which way on a lengthy patch of grass sporadically, having already known that these types of unnerving sounds didn't necessarily mean good times were ahead.

**...Blummm!**

**"MARIO!"**

A Toad indiscriminately doinked down hard on Mario's' temple, deflecting off and falling onto the ground. The now-delirious plumber dawdled around and spun, leaving Luigi to shriek in terror.

**"The...the village..oh dear.."**

The barely-breathing creature struggled to let out, his voice in a clear daze of despair.

**BRRZTTT, BRZTTT...**

A very familiar and subtle sound could be faintly heeded by the dynamic duo in the midst of their bewilderment, as many same-shaped discs of blackness hurdled over them in quick succession, continuing the blood-curdling sound as they flew. And guess what those silhouettes actually were?

**SHROOB UFOS!**

As Mario and Luigi realized what happened their panic grew exponentially, examining this armada of rampaging warships glide over them at speeds they could barely even fathom. They were sent into an even greater stupor, unable to move or run, simply watching, thinking. Soon enough, the hopeless sound turned into another, as the Bros heard mass-explosions and laser attacks a mile or so off. Snapping out of his idle breakdown of his finicky circumstance while Luigi perilously held his cap over his closed eyes, Mario waltzed over to the incapacitated Toad, forgetting about the excursion on his head earlier, and kneeling down to him.

**"The village..**

**dark purple..**

**dry mushrooms.."**

The Toad's voice could barely eek out anything audible at this point, his mouth as dry as what he was describing. Mario shot up, looking back up at the sky and visualizing the previous stampede of what seemed to the Toad's depleted depiction. He rushed to Luigi, and jumped a bit, determinedly uttering 'Let's go!' to his petrified companion, running off without him. Hearing this a few moments later, Luigi peeked out of his cap to find the Toad laid lifelessly on the grass. Launching up somehow even more aghast than before, he followed Mario to a tee. This was immediately confirmed to be the correct course of action when the poor guy was promptly gobbled up by one of the circling UFO's, and sent off with it.

The two had a sigh of relief as they made it to the Mushroom Towers with long stems and large flat surfaces that they saw far off before, concluding they'd at least made some progress towards finding the Princess. Keyword: some. They moseyed on along lackadaisically-arranged stairways in comparison to the sturdy rock ones from day's past until coming across a peculiar little thing in the middle of their route. "Sanguine one!" Stuffwell shouted. Mario painfully stretched back to catch a glimpse of the suitcase. "I apologize for interrupting your much-needed imperativeness, but who has knowledge of the likely life-and-death challenges ahead of you?" Inquisitive 'Hm?'s could be heard from them. "It would behoove you both to be prepared for battle before going on your merry ways!" Another peculiar little thing (that was similar in appearance to a 'dry purple mushroom) crossed into the Bros' line of sight. Stuffwell slid up Mario's back to above his hat and looked to the meandering critters.

"Why, take a peep at this! Oodles of practice right at our mitts!" He cocked his head down. "Mario, do your work against those things, if you would." The Red Plumber smirked, awaiting for it to come close to him as he beautifully executed a squat-jump from his knees and landed down expertly on the monster's noggin. Unsatisfied with just one hit, he flowed along the air to hit the second one, backflipping down to the ground by to Luigi and causing an annoyed stir in his two foes. "Capital work, Mario!" Stuffwell cheered. "Engaging your enemies first will always yield you the upper hand in combat! Outstanding!"

Mario smirked and leapt in place in recognition of this before seeing how his combatants were still squirming from his previous hit. He knelt down, jumping forward with even more strength from the increased preparation time and hammering down a POWERFUL strike to the forehead against the left Shroob that left the thing's eyes protruding outwards and Mario being left with a smile. Stuffwell etched his eyes back towards the Green Bean. "Luigi! You'll do the same as Mario, got it?" The Red One jumped in position to him as he jumped back, a new face of confidence wrapped around him. The Green Plumber leapt up in a far higher arc than Mario and slammed down on the right foe's front half, springing his whole body weight southward before backflipping away to Mario's side and pulling his right thumb up.

"Carefully analyze the enemy's posture! It might give you a keen eye on who they're going to attack!" The one on the left, who amazingly shrugged off the first two hits, ran forward and made an immediate gesture with its right leg, shifting to the right towards Mario. The plumber in question, reading the attack, pounced on the situation and plunged down on his attacker from a short hop, exploding it in a torrent of stars. Before the remaining marauder could react, Luigi had stood back on the ground, witnessing a similar lightshow from his opponent.

Before long Mario was pumping his fist in the air and Luigi was wiping sweat off his cap numerous times as the time-mates had pummeled their way through the alien opposition en masse and en route to-

...Some inaudible dialogue was heard by the two as they made their way onto another mushroom platform. Luigi looked up.

**BLAM!**

Without second notice, the lovable 'Bean had been struck in the cranium by a stray Shrooboid, how terrible (and inconvenient, at that)! Mario again was forced to fling his arms around as Luigi's hands could do nothing to keep his head from bobbling left and right in utter chaos. Stuffwell peered to the right of Mario's face. "Luigi, are you in practicable condition? Do you need a physical exam-I mean repair protocols? It's clear to me you've been dinged up quite a bit." He kept bandying back and forth. "I'll take that as a yes! What favorable timing! Allow me to explain proper health replenishment procedure!" He (I think he's earned the right to be called a proper pronoun by now) laid back on the surprisingly soft floor of the mushroom platform and all two of the non-disordered denizens of that platform stared with befuddlement at the disoriented ex-carpenter.

"Luigi, I know this is about the third time today you've been horrifically brutalized, but could you just try to get your attention back this one time?" He opened up without further intuition. "Now then, if you would, take out a mushroom from the 'item' compartment, yes?" Mario indiscriminately took his time taking it out of its cubby-hole and tossing it into Luigi's gaping mouth. "Wonderful! That's certain to put the marinara on his mozzarella sticks!" The mozzarella stick himself looked back in absolute awkwardness towards Stuffwell. "Anyway, BACK TO (the) ADVENTURE...AT HAND!"

After that little interruption, the Bros continued to slice and dice through bunch after bunch of un-fortuitous foe, eventually getting to the (quite unfortunately named) Holli Jolli Village, that was...well, wasn't enduring the most jolly of holidays.

**TRAVESTY.**

What laid throughout the village was a cavalcade of severed trees, fallen yellow star ornaments, bits and pieces of rocky debris and entire halves of once-beautiful buildings scattered throughout the scarred streets. The entire area had garnered an air of devastation and destruction, where most everything couldn't escape being unscathed by the UFOs' unrelenting shelling. As soon as they came here, they could take a gander at the latter half of the Shroob attack still in-progress, more Toads being captured and houses eviscerated. For once, the duo was prompted with genuine and incessant anguish, gazing in trepidation at what their new enemies could accomplish in such a short amount of time. But, they couldn't take anymore morsels of time simply surveying the damage, and took off into the beast's belly with the intentions of nothing more than stopping the menace that did this.

Thankfully, not all of the houses were damaged beyond hospitability, as the Bros were able to snag up a few coins and mushrooms in several unaffected coin blocks that laid deep in the now-desolate living spaces. Yes, the fireplaces still soldiered on. Indeed, the presents' quality of wrappage was still in tip-top shape. But without anyone to open them nor sit back and feel the comfy warmth of the fire they lost all humanity and purely became graveyards of a once-great town. Something to remind but not to cheer up. Depressing, that's all it was.

Except, apparently that's not all it was completely, as the time-mates came across a sign bearing the words 'Mayor's House,' the establishment itself looking much larger and grand than the ones before. Making haste, they waltzed in.

**"Mrrrf...**

**Mmmph.."**

These faint gasps of despondency greeted the duo unexpectedly as they squinted their eyes far ahead chimneyside.

**What the fireplace?**

The Brothers looked up to see...a hefty man in blood-red attire wagging his feet down at the floor, dangling up in the air while stuck in the chimney itself. "Are...is...there anyone around? Salutations?" The time-mates gazed in astonishment. "What was the fate of those awful purple things? Did they leave?" Mario explained as much as he could to the unfortunate man (to add to the counter, of course). "Oh, lil' old me? I'm the long-serving mayor of this...not completely broken village. Nice to not see ya!" The two smiled, having some humor to lighten up this gloomy situation at hand.

"I was trying to stay away from those darned things when I got, er...stranded up here. Escape has to be possible, though, at least in a way that doesn't involve major weight loss.." The Toad sighed, legs still active. Shrugging, the Red One ambled into the chimney and gave a good jump against the old man's...south side, sending him zooming out and onto the ground safely (surprisingly). "Ho ho! Finally out of harm's way!" This was succeeded by a band of Shroobs and their in-air compatriots moving harm's way back to him.

**"HEEEEEEEEELP!"**

An ear-piercing screech was unfathomably created outside as Mario and Luigi were forced on their feet, turning around in a heartbeat, and rushing out even quicker.

**"WAAAH!"**

They both screamed a similarly-unsettling squeal before the UFOs hastily took the Toad away as fast as they'd met him, indicating their cue to take position at this opposing trio of Shroobs.

This fierce stance by our two heroes was met with bouts of questioning in their foreign tongue by the purple blobs themselves, as if questioning how long it would take to beat these pushovers. The southmost one took arms, however, uniting his comrades against the men in Red and Green with a warcry as they all took out their menacing laser pistols in sync.

**"Let'sa go!"**

**"Okie dokie!"**

On the other hand, in its right hand, the leftmost Shroob pulled out a two-screened doohickey with an extruding antenna on top, signaling for yet another UFO to arrive, this time bearing a spiked timer with the number '3' roosted apathetically on its screen. The Bros only had enough time to make a short glance at it, not thinking much of it and retracing their attention to the combatants at the ready. Mario took hold first while they were calibrating their weapons, striking hard at the device-bearing of the bunch with a hard smack to the face via his well-polished but deadly boots. Coming back to the crater-filled ground, he had a look of determination on him that hadn't emerged in a long, long while. The timer hit '2.'

In response, each Shroob took devious satisfaction in slowly sending plasma blast after blast at our protagonists with such speed that they could barely avoid them, Luigi specifically getting his shoes smoked slightly. This didn't deter him decidedly, as he made a great leap for the northeast one, sending it almost on its feet while his feet tap-danced in celebration. It hit '1.'

Another volley of laser blasts were discharged against the teammates-through-time, on this barrage actually hitting each of them once, near knocking the wind out of them. The 'near' part was crucial, though, as they swallowed their pain and held on valiantly. They even worked in such harmony on this attack that they squat-jumped at nigh the same time, dispatching mighty stompings on two of the cutthroat invaders. They high-fived each other, grinning graciously.

All three of them still stood there, unperturbed, unphased. The timer hit '0.' An imposing energy cannon strutted out of the UFO's bottom, formulating and firing a HUGE ball of pure dread gifted in a sphere of plasma, hurdling against the dynamic duo as they could do nothing but howl and wail before being completely and assuredly KO'd in a millisecond.

**Defeat.**

The Mario Brothers laid lifeless on the embattled floor of Holli Jolli Village, acting as a sign of massive satisfaction for the triumphant trios of Shroobs as they laughed and chatted about their hearts out for minutes on end. They had taken down this oncoming threat with ease, and now they could progress onwards undisturbed...for now.

As to what the destinies of our two conked-out compadres would be? You'll have to wait and see.


	3. Toddling the Tide

Goodness gracious, things are starting to get messy, aren't they! Lasers flung, words murmured and building left to ruin. Those all sound like very interesting set-pieces for this chapter, yes? Onto it!

_**We return to the high skies above the ransacked Holli Jolli Village...**_

**...and the soaring Koopa Cruiser.**

In one of the flying contraptions eastmost compartments lay our well-known trio of Mario, Luigi in Peach in their...immature state, prancing around aimlessly across the polished metal flooring and making pleasurable sounds with their bulbous mouths. However, these festivities were (very rudely) interrupted by a familiar burst of faint sheets of sound, swimming along smoothly.

**...BOOM!**

Did I really just say smoothly? Oh, well then. Indeed, the three were slung up by a cascading impact to the Cruiser's rear, causing understandably astounded faces from the babies (except for Peach, as always) as they hit down to the ground with tears gushing out of their poor eye sockets.

**"EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY!"**

A voice that sounded seemingly just as intrigued in the unfortunate scenario as they clamored out from a descending yellow-green speaker, not at all quelling any sort of fear from the frantic littluns, if that was even the objective. Luckily, Toadsworth carefully crawled his way into the babies' chamber and moved his vocal cords vigorously.

"PRIIIINCESS!" he shouted urgently, somehow drowning out the graining emergency buzzes that permeated the room. Yet another strike graced the ship's battered rear. He accelerated his crawling speed three-fold and made a ninety-degree turn and stood up simultaneously in a feat of apt athleticism.

"Heavens! Do not cower, young princess, for Toadsworth is ready at the hour!" His courage was further proven by his seemingly impenetrable sheen of protection against the tremors of infantile bawling.

He hurried over to the left side of Peach's carriage. "Quick! Let us travel to refuge!" With that, he bolted out, the colorful cart in hand, assured that the other two toddlers could handle, y'know, not dying.

The speaker coasted down once more.

**"This is the Great (and awesome) Prince Bowser speaking to you!"**

A very rough and rowdy voice beamed through the audio device's protruding outlet. "Ain't this thing cool? Anyway, don't jump off or your pay'll be cut in half, bow down to me, yada yada yada. And, GET DOWN TO THE BRIDGE!"

His tone shifted in such a way that Mario perked his nose up in interest, snapping out of his crazed daze. Looking to see his brother's salt-water-stream still very active, he bounced up and down a bit in a foray to get his dignity (or what was left of it) back in shape. A few seconds later, he resorted to shoving his sobbing sibling across the surprisingly-unaffected ground.

Getting into an organized formation, the Diaper Duo found themselves in a cavernous corridor with long, thick piping lining the spaces around the platform they were standing on.

**"What are you tater-tots doing?"**

A Koopa in aviator fatigues approached the two as they dilly-dalleyed forward, causing them to exchange awkward glances at each other in unison. "You're SUPPOSED to be moseying along to his grouchiness..." He stopped in his train of thought, going over to the Red One.

"Hey, Red tot, show me a little preparation hop, will ya?" Mario shrugged slightly, dazzlingly jumping even higher than the Koopa's height.

"Good enough for me," he smarmily approved, sidestepping to the Lean Green Bean. "Do the same, Green tater."

The half of a breakfast item in question leapt up high after a brief bout of hesitation, garnering a slightly more impressed expression on their personal trainer's face. "Pretty good, in fact, good enough to go. Practice those jumps with the crates ahead and scram, you know the Prince ain't patient."

The Brothers did as he told, carefully navigating through the hallway of blocks and boxes by way of feet-to-air and back. To their chagrin, yet another aeronautically-briefed Koopa heckled them as they came upon a series of box-pedestals with short gaps scattered symetrically in the middle of them.

"Always remember to leap and lope as a GROUP! If Prince Bowser can't get teambuilding right, then I'm sure you can." Motivated by this, they speedily hurdled athwart the spaces, overcoming the ship's shaky situation.

As they stopped at the elongated area's next section, they saw a third Koopa in brown attire, this one however nonchalantly leaning against the surprisingly-pristine orange wall."Psst, here's a secret. Red guys hit red things. Green guys hit green things. If a Red guy hits a green thing, nada, nope, zip happens. Same difference for Green guy and Red thing. Use that in good health, kids, it might save your lives someday."

Mario and Luigi reluctantly held their thumbs up before bashing through hue-appropriate blocks that dotted their immediate path, and venturing into the next compartment with the prescient advice well in-hand.

Capering in and out of another litany of storage containers and floating cubes with the starting letters of their names peculiarly stamped onto them, they stopped to take a gander at a similarly odd object in the hands of a (alright how many more of them are gonna loiter in position) Koopa that stood idly by.

"I don't expect a bunch of babies to have the smoothest of rides in the troubling times we live in, so you better save when ya feel uneasy."

He tossed the thing toward Luigi, a neatly-constructed album with a rainbow 'S' stitched on its cover. The target buckling under its surprising weight, Mario had to swoop in and tuck the book into his pockets to curb his brother's...further squishing. Lakitu once again taking a photo (this time from a medium-sized window right in the midst of the battle, smart thinking Lakitu) and the babies marching up some short-stepped stairs deeper into the belly of this mechanical beast.

**"Time to show these purple blockheads what the Cruiser can really do!"**

They entered a narrow yet spacious control room with the same general color palette, this time with a curved line of computers to the left side perched before a large, open windshield of which the finicky Prince could see out from.

"Fire the...Koopa Cannon!" he said, his hesitation acting as a testament to the name's originality.

"FIRE!" one of his lackies repeated, although in an obviously more urgent tone.

The ship seemed to swerve violently northwest, sending a single shot of spiked-ball rocketing into the trio of UFOs behind it, the projectile mystically bouncing in and off of each ship till they were all short-lived puffs of smoke.

"Bwa ha ha ha ha HAH!" Bowser cackled, not worrying about his voicecrack causing inevitable deafness to those around him. "I'm just so darn BAD! I hope they were honored to be DESTROYED by me, heh!"

"You're the best Koopa there is!" one splurged in affection.

"You're a Koopa's Koopa's Koopa's Koopa!" another pouted.

"Bwah hahaha!" he shrieked in joy, consuming the compliments like candy (with extra sprinkles for the Prince, duh).

**"...YOW!"**

This squeal was instead one of shock, as the Koopa Cruiser nosedived without a moment's notice before regaling in more stable altitudes. "Whoa! You call THAT piloting!? Pay some attention, air-nerd!" he scowled back at his incompetent cohorts.

"Your Distastefulness! There! Four O' Clock!" the topmost Koopa advised, taking the criticism to heart.

**Back in the Village...**

Our dynamic duo was in quite the unfortunate situation. Mario and Luigi simply laid on the dismembered pavement with a dull, movementless quality to their bodies. They were trophies to the Shroobs that stood next to them, tall and proud, laughing and bantering with one another until the Sun rose and set for how easily their foes were met and vanquished. To them, this was just a job well done, and so well done in fact that it warranted this type of jubilation.

"Those Villagers are under the Shroobs' mercy, Prince Bowser!"

"Your...your course of action? Shall we assist them?"

"Aw, shucks...it's over half past snack time already! Bummer..."

It took a second for him to think about it. "We...we saw nothing at all, got it?"

Peach sure didn't get it. And, using a sort of sixth sense to somehow figure out what was going on, she started a thunderous stretch of crying that began to dang near crack everyone's ears in half.

"Great hoogly-boogly-coogly! The princess is NOT accepting of this!" Toadsworth shrieked. "Oh-so Juvenile Master Bowser! Leaving those folks defenseless and vulnerable is absolutely delinquent (and harmful to our eardrums)!"

And so it occurred. The patience-perforating princess detonated in a literal waterfall of tears supplemented by a torrent of squealing that could cut through butter between five and ten inches thick.

"GOSH! She'll ruin us all, AND my dignity! Alright! I'll help them if it'll just SHUT HER UP ALREADY! Koopa Cannon, please!" His voice visibly sounded strained, concentrating such frustration into a couple sentences like that was tough work for a dragon-turtle of his stature.

**"FIRE!"**

The crew resounded, rushing to their stations (which were fortunately right next to them) and sending a shot of cannon reigning down upon the celebrating Shroobs, flinging 'em to who knows where. His Gnarliness stampeded to Peach's lofty, soaking carriage.

"There! Happy now, priiincess?" his rage was translated into punctual taunting, before a sigh cleared the animosity.

"You stinkin' babies can go off and do whatever you do. Go KO 'em for me, Green and Red!" The crawlers departed on the building-lacking northwest side of town, Toadsworth tagging along for disputed reasons.

"Oh-so Young Masters, if you could, please take a look at those most-unfortunate villagers. My conjecture is that that would please the princess dearly...and make future tantrums significantly less of a possibility." Luigi gulped in remembrance of the previous...happening.

"I shall stand waiting for your undoubtedly-victorious return, thinking to myself about walking sticks and all that. Tallyho!"

A crucial objective in mind, at least for the sake of their hearing's continued prosperity, the future Time-mates ventured forth into the depths of the village...a short walk away. Even still, the dark imagery of a desolated suburban area combined with the bright and appealing architecture constituted a both unsettling and curious feeling in the indignant infants, in wonderment and fear at equal measures.

**What's this? Two grown men conveniently with the same outfits as the babies? Mystifying!**

Discovering a pair of hairy men in oddly carbon copy-looking overalls as them was a wholly revelation to them, although intrigue turned to urgency when they got going in clamoring for the old bros' awakening, moving feet muscles over and over again wildly. It appeared their luck had run out for the time being, however, a pair of the purple marauders slithering out from the hunk of black-iron metal and muttering s'more gibberish as they eerily examined the two hopping hopefuls.

**"Googoo! Let'sa go!"**

Our pre-pubescent prodigies flexed their vocal cords in an expectedly spry and sprightly fashion, standing firm on this suburban battleground prepared for struggle. Seeing that the Shroobs' potent weaponry required further calibration after the commotion with the cannonball, Mario jumped straight into the action, plopping down a small but still-effective blow onto the stubby creature's forehead (if mushrooms have foreheads). While it incurred some oral malice and foot-slamming from the baddie, a recognizable voice came crashing down.

"Young Master Luigi! Don't fret, look to Mario's form and perform as he did!" he exclaimed, dashing to the sidelines. Despite being clearly nagged by this, via abject reverse psychology this genuinely rekindled a sort of grit in the green youngling, him hurling his body at a breakneck velocity into the right Shroob's mushy temple, inflicting even stronger damage as the tater returned to his spot fortuitously. Mario could only tip his cap in recognition of awesomeness.

This time though wasn't the best for the appreciation of athletic excellence, as the left Shroob was keen to react and sent a condensed sphere of hot plasma careening into his pudgy wittle face, dispatching him to the ground. Yet, his doggedness was still first-rate, opportunely dodging a second volley from the most recently-concussed alien and showing a ready-for-more stance.

**"Young Masters!"**

Toadsworth squawked, nigh as persistent as they were. "Let's give you a taste of some...

_**"Bros. Items,**_

shall we?"

He lugged out an assortment of hollow emerald Koopa shells, accurately tossing them to the fascinated youngsters.

"These handy-dandy things are designed for use by a duo! Make Shroob-kebabs out of them, if you would!" He was immediately mouthed off by the soon-to-be finger-food.

Some team-building exercise, eh? Mario held out the device like he'd messed with it a thousand times before, setting down and kicking at the precise time for maximum momentum. The shell ricocheted off the left baddie's shin, provoking a gasp of pain before shifting direction to Luigi's steadfast toes, which slingshotted the projectile back yet again. The babies rallied on, accelerating the shell's speed with each kick, taking care of the left foe in a few seconds. The right one was just kicking practice for our daring doublet, and the scuffle became history.

Then, the toddlers observed their counterparts' unmoving bodies once more, Toadsworth checking the carnage for the first time.

"That was pretty close, don't you think?" He shuffled over to the right. "Come to think of it, at close range, they bear a startling similarity to the two of you!"

Mario and Luigi put fist to chin, glaring at the two men in front of them feet onward.

"Yet, who really knows when those terrible aliens'll make their return? It'd be best we take these villagers to Master Bowser's ship." They sauntered over back to the Cruiser...

_Those aliens...Their advent has been like a horrid nightmare...It was all so sudden..._

_Vicious parasites from that purple planet, land of utter disgustingness! Their goal is oh-so obvious! They desire to take hold of all we value solemnly in the Mushroom Kingdom!_

_Our very land...Our very lives!_

Toadsworth twiddled around frightfully, visualizing the incoming terror. It was spot-on.

The bustling and booming Toad Town, with Toads skimpering around hither and thither, didn't escape the barrage of pure-black discs hovering above ominously. They didn't escape.

An endless current of smoldering lasers radiated onto the once-tranquil houses, shopkeeps and parks. It took no time for the dirt to become ash, the water to evaporate, the flesh to be soldered. Bricks flew every which way as a second wave of far more blunt, tangible projectiles that spared the cauterization of wounds. The air itself grew arid as the Toads that somehow survived were rounded up like fish in net and devoured by the white slices of machinery that nearly blocked the sun. The night, though, carried on...

_Oh, the village is in shambles..._

_And our precious castle as well!_

The apprehensive Toad found himself in the midst of a crumbling Peach's Castle, Peach herself closing her eyes in trepidation, Mario and Luigi clutching to their frail faces, and Bowser left in a static pose. Attacks from the outside drowned out everything else, and so even the wails could be barely listened to. A Toad lay scratching his feet against the cracked floor, shouting out pleas for assistance in this mayhem.

A UFO swerved inside. It meandered to above the Toad, as everyone bolted to the left insistently. He could do nothing but watch his impending subjugation. The Prince, pressed up at the dismembering wall, plucked out a boxy-grey phone and shuddered words at it.

**"Prince Bowser at the ready!**

**Kamek, come in, come in!"**

The electronic's antenna buzzed as perilously as they whimpered.

"Get the Koopa Cruiser here on the DOUBLE!" he wouldn't hesitate for the world. The UFO's protruded cannon hung over.

**"MY PRINCE!"**

The whistling sound of the Koopa Cruiser arrived, indeed, on the double, ramming into the aerial plunderers on top and annihilating the ship inside with the flick of a switch and whisk of a spiked spheroid. It single-handedly sent the group up in the air and down on the ground.

"Prince Bowser, let's get OUT of here, pronto!" the Koopa's voice had near died out by now.

...Toadsworth snapped out of it. He must've been droning on by himself for at least fifteen minutes. Nevertheless, he carried on (as always), and stood front and center by the oddly mouth-shaped main control pad facing this new quartet of bros.

"And THAT, gentlemen, is how the princess and I were valiantly rescued by Master Bowser, as...strange as it sounds. And...well, now there isn't much soil left in the Mushroom Kingdom that hasn't tragically fallen under malicious Shroob control."

"Incoming status report, Your Mischievous! We are currently closing in on Peach's Castle, if you can even call it one anymore." The Koopas still managed their confident peppiness with every stroke of the tongue.

Toadsworth was drawn to the windows.

"Our once extravagant castle...No...take a gaze at it now..."

**Dastardly!**

No, this wasn't a castle, as Toadsworth pointed it out. It was more like a geometrically-consistent and painstakingly-precise microcosm of the Shroobs themselves: purple monsters with a knack for military dominance and horrific decapitation of what their conquered peoples once loved. It was a brooding edifice, the hues of pink and violet and magenta somehow keeping brightness and villainy synchronously, fitted onto pale bricks, ovular eggs and even the trees outside. They were balanced out increasingly by the dark-green oozing liquid that replaced the moat, and the pale-silver of battlements and circular warships alike. Above everything else, a mammoth statue rested, half covered in a peculiar shadow.

Orbiting it like the Sun were hundreds of Shroob UFOs deployed there to make the fortification that much more impregnable from the air, a swarm that could pick anything else apart. Suffice to say, they were armed to the teeth in every sense of the saying.

"...No doubt these fiends'd call it Shroob Castle, they couldn't muster an ounce of artistic creativity if they were filled up like barrels with it. In fact, a rumor says that their little-known leader, Princess Shroob, lays there..."

Mario jumped ahead to explain.

"Eh? You say Princess Peach is being held up in that castle? Ho ho! You surely jest. The princess is snug safely here with me."

The plumber blabbered again.

"...I beg your pardon? The...future, Princess Peach? You're the future Masters Mario and Luigi?"

He nodded swiftly.

"Ho ho ho! I do say, you fellows must've gone daffy! Noggins bonked, eh? You should get a nice nap."

Mario thought for a moment, hopefully not about that nap. The sirens blared red once more. The quartet ambled in place, befuddled.

Bowser stomped. "Status report, NOW, slackers!"

"Your Indecentness! We're getting some sort of transmission from Peach's...ahem, Shroob Castle, sir!"

"A transmission, huh? Well, put it up on the TV-I mean monitor! Let's see what's up with them..."

**Princess Shroob...**

The grainy image of a figure with dark-red eyes, green earings, two mushroom-shaped loads atop her shadow-obscured head, and a white crown all piled on a velvet dress with a grey-black amulet in the middle, flashed on the screen. The babies jumped for joy. Foul emissions of Shroobish beeped out, her bulbous top-half throbbing.

"...Who's this dumb hag?" Bowser feverishly blurted.

"Th-th-that must be...has to be...P-Princess Shroob! Without a doubt!" Toadsworth hollered, shivering while cradling Peach in his arms. Another bout of undiscernible words rung in their ears. The 'princess' rose her claws for hands high into the musky, cloudy sky, a myriad of different reactions seeping out from the quartet. The Prince merely snarled.

"Man...Does ANYONE have ANY idea what she's blabbing about? Gosh..." The alarm continued sounding.

"Ack! P-Prince Bowser, s-sir! F-from Shroob Castle, it seems...

**...It's a Shroob Missile, and it's headed STRAIGHT FOR US!"**

The quartet compounded into absolute astonishment. Bowser simply gritted his teeth.

"Whoa! Evasive maneuvers, STAT! Koopa Cannon! FIRE!"

t

"No...

**...NO AMMO!"**

"...What? OH, you're definitely fired."

The purple missile wafted through the sky, going and going and...

**BAM!**

**"DIRECT HIT!"**

The impact shook everyone up and down again, the altitude levels faltering at excessive rates. The Purple Princess' mouth could be vaguely seen, snickering under another victory. The monitor faded to jaded, pixelated lines.

"Those...those alien DIRTBAGS! We HAVE to hold it together till this we get back home!"

It sunk further. It was making a bee-line for...home, as it was for His Gnarliness.

**Bowser's Castle...**

The sleek and menacing architecture came into view as the Koopa Cruiser came into the interior's clutches, yard by yard, dawdling on the air, till...

**CRASH...**

...A great time for a cliffhanger, don't you think?


	4. The Castle Connection

Our dogged quartet has found themselves in yet another sticky situation, yikes! Can they get a break? Probably not, but at least it's good entertainment. Oh well, here we go!

**The Koopa Cruiser had crashed into Baby Bowser's Castle...**

Indeed, it was quite the crotchety collision. Stones and metal pieces were slingshot in and out of the castle's 'windows' via chance, Koopas and Goombas could be seen running for their 1-ups and inside the doomed airship lay scream and squeal galore. Lucky them, though, as there was no actual explosion incurred, and the sliding along the floor only lasted a few seconds, for it was the bros to take on the mantle of sliding.

**...Double Yikes!**

Mhm-hm, the bros were frazzled beyond belief, feet scattering about on the complexion of broken rock and entire plates of debris. This didn't last long, fortunately, as Luigi fortuitously bounced into Mario's right, falling back as his bro managed to shake the whimsicality out of his head. Stuffwell chose a...meh time to come and hop off his sanguine carrier's back.

"Simply put, you seem to have a knack for getting into trouble time after time, don't you?" He somehow feigned a sigh. "Hm, my most-vigilant detection devices fail to pick up anybody in range," his eyes veered off Northeast. The Bros followed, taking a good gander at the Cruiser's roughed-up interior. Not to miss a hands-on opportunity, Luigi took a short jaunt inside, quickly returning to his peers with a slightly fearful bit of gibberish. Mario just put glove to chin once more.

"Perhaps..." Stuffwell interjected, "...perhaps our contemporary comrades were dispatched by all the exploding and whatnot." The duo nodded unsuspectingly. They would surely start suspecting in a second. "And, according to my Ultra-All-Encompassing-Time-Radar (as copyrighted by the Professor), a new time hole has opened up the heart of the castle, would you look at that, hm." The Time-mates' reaction was quite the opposite of Stuffwell's posh lack of expression, eyes bulging out and all that as usual.

"...I think it'd be right to set finding that little thing and making a reapparence in the present as priority-number-one." This time, it was Mario who was the decisive interjector, spouting s'more stretches of 'Italian.' Luigi, clearly a more terse-minded individual, responded with an slightly slower nod. The Brothers were then on their way toward the time hole-SIKE! Actually, they came across a strange-looking but colorfully-embossed album on the ground, and promptly held it up, Lakitu conveniently sending a photo of the castle flying down to rest snugly in the comforts of the book's pages. Mario and Luigi regaled at this quirky little thing for a hot minute before shrugging the experience off and marching forward...

The duo propped up in a quite-familiar chamber of lightly-connected but tightly-elevated platforms, an entire catalogue of shiny blocks ripe for the taking, and a swarm of Bowser's usual foot soldiers scattered about as a lake of lava drew watch over both the Bros on the ground and the spikey spheres that dangled up top. The super-siblings didn't fret in the slightest, rubbing their hands together and going on their usual romp through thick and thin (block and Goomba) with some much-needed Green Shells and 1-ups snagged along the way.

The next room, however, was destined to be marginally more complex. There, the rocky floor was wide and imposing, filling up most walking space as the fiery liquid was exiled to the corners. Instead, though, a series of slender, high-up and blood-red platforms caught the Time-mates' attention, supported by grey spike-band columns and a large staircase bearing the same colors. Intrigued, they scaled onto the tightly-knit pathway and began tiptoeing across it, Luigi in particular pining for the smashing of item boxes below. Oh, well, what can you do.

Next room, oh, same story. A large red bridge extending into the other. Please, this is even getting me bored-

**"Mama Mia!"**

A squeamish yelp was eeked out to the duo's surprise. Scrambling to the informal bridge's center, they dawdled looking for the source of this fair yowl. Looking to each other, they had faces of bafflement.

**Pheeeew!**

**Bing!**

**Triple Yikes...?**

The Green Bean of course couldn't catch a break from all the things miraculously bouncing down on his cap-covered cranium with a far more crudely-made spiked ball (how many of them are we going to have in two chapters) becoming the most recent object to rock his noggin. The two regaining their solitude, they glared upwards at...the babies dangling for dear life?

**Dearrie Me! Quadruple Yikes!**

Yes sirrie, the two final quarters of our most-courteous quartet were SAFE! Err, scratch that, worse yet, they were perilously trapped on a wildly specific and extraneous bit of chains and girders! S'more jittery positions were to be had for the Bros down under (the chains, what were you thinking-) as the lowercase Red One slithered up to a bit of an awkward reunion with his similarly-uncapitalized compadre on flat ground.

**"Babies!"**

This time it was the older bro that performed the high-pitched squealing, Mario, who clued his past self and brother on their 100%-guaranteed way to safety. Luigi was the first one to volunteer for such a harrowing infant-cushioning challenge, his past sibling gladly adding to the aforementioned ensemble of items to conk the poor guy's crown. Anyway, clearly the two worked something out, as they were already playing with each other just a few seconds later.

Meanwhile, as Mario outstretched his hands out for Baby Luigi's stompage on, the toddler was a bit hesitant, grumbling a bit and going fearful about the long way down. His honorary pillow-proponent hopped in place to entice the young guy. Thankfully, Stuffwell jumped off on his own accord to help the Bros out.

"Feasibly, you could utilize me as an efficient and well-rounded cushionation apparatus. I am, as expected, extremely well-padded. Just at the sight of my lavish leather would Baby Luigi pine for the luxury of stepping on me, no doubt."

Confident in this fine proposition, Mario propped up Stuffwell and held him out instead as a superior and more high-tech comfort mechanism. Cajoled by the possibility of such coziness, the past brother slid down the now-sweaty chains, had a sudden epiphany about his fear of heights conveniently in the midst of falling from a great elevation, and landed soundly down on Stuffwell's...backside with a big thump.

"Reunion with the babies has been gloriously achieved," Stuffwell spoke, "BACK TO (the) ADVENTURE...AT HAND!"

Satisfied with their success in reuniting with the Babies, the present Bros decided to start walking off, clearly a good idea right-

**WRONG.**

Expectedly, the Baby Bros started actively flooding the platform with buckets and buckets' worth of salt water the second Mario's feet were in the air, incurring Stuffwell to leap off Mario's back yet again.

"Allow me a quick apology, I was sadly rushing. I did forget to mention...how to locomote as a group of four."

The Brothers were dazed a bit with the Babies continuing their onslaught of H2O.

"You see, your past selves cannot understand my advanced communication skills, and, well…

**...what a scenario."**

Mario scurried over to his age-opposite's side, and, thinking for a moment, hollered out for his attention. Baby Mario turning over, interested, his older identity made a speedy 'shocked' expression, changing the buckets of water to that of laughter. And then to that of jubilation as the two reveled in good ol' fun with the Mario tossing up and down his playful equivalent.

Luigi, taking note in this mastery of performance art, did his own variation of it with a thrust of the arms up and down happily to cheer up his younger fellow. That young fellow, however, didn't flinch at first, prompting the less-Lean Green Bean to mimic a scared face just like his brother had done.

This, though didn't plan out either, and Luigi was just stumped by it all. So, as a last resort, he began spinning rapidly in place for a short bit, stopping to see if his luck has changed-yeah, no, still crying. Horrified, Luigi spun even faster and more erratic, causing him to skid a bit to the left and bobble around all dizzy, making the Leaner Green Bean a very entertained infant. By all means, they made up, and were off and playing with each other in milliseconds.

"Yes, they are indeed not helpless! I recommend you four join forces and move on swimmingly!"

The Bros perceived 'swimmingly' as repeating their previous offense of carrying on without the babies, appropriately falling over each other at Stuffwell's "Wait just one moment!" The younglings, capitalizing on this karma, rejoiced gleefully.

"Yes, proceeding well as a group of four is rather important. Line up with your past selves, please!"

The quartet did just that, creating a square of Italians with wildly-varying ages back at the bridge's center.

"In order to work as a group efficiently, you must learn to carry the toddlers in a non-encumbering way. In order to achieve that, perhaps, one must master the advanced process of 'piggyback riding,' yes yes. To perform that, you 'hold' your 'hands' out, and let the Babies 'ride' them. I know, extremely serious AND difficult."

The Brothers almost gulped at this, carefully protruding their sweat-coated gloves out behind their backs and letting the Babies hop on.

**"...PIGGYBACK!"**

Stuffwell shouted joyously. "Oh, yes, such excellent execution of a spectacular move! This will be most-certainly vital in the trials and tribulations ahead!"

The quartet scratched their heads a bit.

"Now then, we're off to find our endangered companions! BACK TO (the) ADVENTURE...AT HAND!"

Before truly being able to get back to the ADVENTURE...AT HAND(!), the band of brothers (and a suitcase) had their hopes of a smooth transition from room-to-room crushed with a pesky little blue switch that needed four to step on it to open the door ahead, as helpfully instructed by some scribbling on a chained tablet. "Do NOT question Prince Bowser's structural integrity!" it wrote. They all smirked slightly, before stepping on its flattened blue surface and strolling through the doorway.

Another trusty tablet lay untouched for them, rambling on about how it was only customary to praise His Radness at the end of every completed jump, a high-up ledge before them. Keen enough to solve most any puzzle involving the vertical movement of one's lower body, the Brothers gave the Babies a chance to show off their burgeoning athleticism, lobbing them straight-lofty till they cascaded down to their requested destination. Waddling over to a block bearing a nicely-illustrated green pipe of sorts, they instinctively struck it, conveniently opening up a pipe where the Old Bros leapt down and regrouped. One blue platform, one opened door.

Next up in line for some good ol' stomping was a chamber that called back to the open-endedness of...three rooms ago (time flies), all sorts of interest-piquing geometry to explore. Take your pick, from a tyke-designed and stockade-surrounded 'gymnasium' where the Babies could exercise their crawling skills, to a plethora of items and coins just waiting to be gobbled up by the Bros who'd grown accustomed to the discovery of the aforeknown goodies. All's well in war, as they say. Even if it's a mystery as to why His Frugalness left the stuff in such a...scantily-clad location.

A couple minutes later, s'more leaping and loping had, a passage in the Save Album written down, and-

**"PRIIIIIIIINCE!"**

Look who it is.

A familiarly blue-caped, broom-cruising Koopa cried, the quartet left to reflect on how hard the pain on their ears were. He turned left and right, descending...

"...PRINCE BOWSER!" he repeated, facing the Bros and Babies, startled.

"Ah-HAHAHAHA! You! Small, stompable red and green bugs! I bet I attempted to kidnap you a while ago, didn't I?" the Magikoopa fluttered forward.

"Indeed, I did! BOY, though, that didn't go swimmingly...and your stature isn't quite as petite anymore..."

He went face-to-face.

"You're much, much hairier, as well..."

He made a swerve to their right.

"Odd...but that doesn't matter! You are enamored with exasperating His Pre-Pubescentness, are you? Well, then YOU'LL be at the center of MY exasperation!"

In no time, with the flick of his wand, a Boo came crashing down, at once sending the quartet into battle mode. Stuffwell popped off Mario's back yet again and landed in front of the two pairs of Bro, the Boo still very-much in a 'hands over eyes' offensive stance.

**"Hold up!"**

The suitcase's gaping mouth coarsely delivered. "Have you ever seen a 'piggyback' move in the midst of battle?"

At this point, there was naught much more two men and their younger selves could do than shake his head at such a question.

"Well, it's absolutely, simply, unequivocally, fantabulous! Allow me to show you!"

He ambled towards the Boo.

"Mario, the 'jump,' ring a bell?"

You couldn't expect much less from a man like him, could you. A nod said it all.

"Come along now, get into position!"

And so, the clash between fighting style and performance art began. The entire room focused singularly on the amber plumbers (assuming a career in plumbing had dated back THAT far in Mario's life) as they entered their own zone of confidence and precision.

"Fire down!"

Mario flung into the air this time, an oversized cap waving all around beside him, unable to break the elegancy, eloquence of their arc. Floating up and up, reaching apogee, sinking, drilling...

**BANG!**

One blow. Baby Mario swayed backwards to the spot opposite Luigi. That's just the appetizer.

"Your turn!"

The sanguine one, emboldened and energized by what his two-decade junior could do, plummeted onto the Boo's jellylike 'head,' provoking dizziness and a lack of coverage on the ghost's eyes. Not even the paranormal could resist the mighty boot.

"Now, thunder down!"

The Lean Bean(s) knew it was their calling. With a release barely a second long, the duo made liftoff, orbiting, rocketing, all the astro-terminology. There was nothing graceful about their take on the attack, it was just ruthlessly efficient, effective, and, 'course, clumsy. Without, that, though, it wouldn't be a Luigi attack, would it.

The Boo was (lean) bean-busted beyond belief.

...For a moment, the quartet could revel in their small success, admiring each other's styles, their vigor, their quick-footedness and shellshocking firepower that would lead them to bigger victories. Their innate, unbreakable link with the Babies. It all meshed like cake and people with unkempt facial hair.

"...Heh, heh heh!"

T'was only a moment, though.

Their marauder at hand summoned an unsuspecting target practice cutout-I mean Goomba, looking a bit more hard-nosed than usual.

"Now, let's give you a spoonful of some...

**Bros. Items,**

yes yes yes?"

The Bros just scratched their hats while the Babies were caught up in anticipation, albeit fueled by absolute carnage.

"With these weapons of intermediate-to-mass destruction, it's hard to not see them as a go-to option for you, especially with the extra punch the toddlers can pack!"

The punch-packed toddlers in question perfectly perused their pockets to pull out a couple glistening green shells ripe for the situation, their older brethren immediately contorting their face muscles to that of a straight-up grin. Mario leaning forward, one of the shells placed at his feet with his junior time-mate plopped onto it, there was nothing but chaos to ensue. The scaley sphere was kicked smoothly towards the brown baddie.

"NOW! SPIN LIKE YOUR SHORT LIFE DEPENDS ON IT!"

Baby Mario, a bit scared by the intimidating demand, did spin like his nascent existence depended on it (thanks, peer pressure), the shell following his motion and striking at the Goomba with intense ferocity.

"KICK IT BACK! AND BACK AGAIN!"

Luigi, similarly disheartened, vigorously sent his lengthy foot into the shell to keep the onslaught going and going. A spin there, a kick here. Spin, kick, spin, kick, spinkick, wooh. It was hard to watch...although incredibly satisfying for the purveyors of this destruction at the same time. Who would've thunk it. By the end of it all, the Goomba could only wish it was sick today.

"...AAAAAACK! DASTARDLY!" Another one of Bowser's footsoldiers poofed up. A chuckle came out from the wizard, clearly not knowing the definition of insanity.

Stuffwell was just as enthusiastic. "Luigi, may you honor your color well?"

The Green Bean knew exactly what this meant.

Infinitely more confidence at the ready, Luigi gave the shell and its green-blue passenger a jolt for the ages with the end of his boot, Baby Luigi needing no more cheerleading from Stuffy (as you'd think a baby would call him) to take the quartet's foe behind the woodshed. Kick, spin, kick, spin. Knockout. KO. Blam. You get the idea.

"YAAAACK! YOU BUFFOONS!" He'd change the letters of his retort up ever so slightly. "How long shall I have to go on with this? I'm in a HURRY!

This time, by the Star Sprites, a Boo AND a Goomba! The madkoopa!

...Stuffwell faced the pairs solemnly. "You know what to do. Let's make it quick, yes?"

The two senior time-mates nodded, as their strong-willed suitcase returned to the sidelines, the real-estate of Mario's back occupied overwhelmingly by one young fellow. What precipitated was an all-out duel for the ages, if a bit onset by the inexperience of the Brothers with the power of the green shell. Nevertheless, the quartet stood tooth-and-nail with their enemies, dodging attacks and dishing out a good amount of their own punishment to win the day handily. Well, at least for now.

Clearly having too much time on his hands, the Magikoopa turned away, floating off, clamoring "PRINCE BOWSER!"

The guys continued, traversing through more bridges and enemies along the way. New adversaries were there to greet them, too, like the cannon-wielding Shy Guy whose varying patterns proved successful in tripping up our duo of duos, at least at first, the bullet bills being indeed painful. The Boos illusiveness were also still a challenge, zipping around with invisibility and trying to catch our heroes off guard, but still, they kept calm and vigilant, making their way to a large blue pipe. Glossing over the inevitably-amusing instructions, they stepped down on the transportation device and let it bring them to the second section of the castle. Convenient! Another passage in the album was written, Lakitu's camera clicked, and they were off.

...They began barreling through convoluted puzzle after convoluted puzzle in what could only be described as Bowser's...atypical architectural fantasies. Since, per say, he had quite the knack for high-up ledges that held switch-blocks which would then stimulate bridges to prop up ahead. While seemingly an obtuse infrastructure system, its cognitive benefits to the babies, along with the item blocks stashed inside, were meaningful additions in their own right. Eh, that's probably what it was intended for, anyway, right?

The older Bros too had to chime in, a sort of block-based tennis emerging as the duos triggered one pair of multicolored floating squares after the other, each sequence resulting in another transportational device, AKA, a bridge, being revealed. Neat! Nevertheless, some...puzzling experience couldn't be undercut for the quartet as they zeroed in on the adventure. Additionally, some battling experience was very much necessary for the Babies as they found themselves head-to-head with an opposing couple of 'Boom Guys,' one of His Creativeness' more unique naming choices. Being far more stubby and small, this was significantly more of a challenge for them, at least when compared to their fellow Bros' utter dominance. Yet, they prevailed, even if for Baby Mario's sustaining of punishment by way of Bullet Bill. Ouch...

After some meandering around a whole squadron of e, the quartet reunited admirably with each other, and took to continuing their torrid pace of dodging, dealing and delivering into what was probably their final puzzle: a walled-off door and another ledge for the Babies to traverse. This time, though, a great big slab of redness hovered in the air, a familiar 'M' fastened to its sides. The Babies were surrounded by darkness as they entered the room the ledge was leading up to, and shrieked out a bit to awkwardly signal for the Brothers' hitting of the block above them, Mario specifically. Then, a Shine Sprite came down sleekly, the Baby Bros to go along on their merry way evading the floor of spikes that fenced up their path. However, the light didn't last long, and Luigi became the next man up to strike the rectangular object overhead, a successful rotation of Mario-Luigi enduring to eventually have the Babies come out unscathed (and un-spiked) on the other end.

A nicely-woven chestlike box caught their view immediately, just low enough for it to be in their stumpy fists' reach. This HAS to be another the switch to open the door, right-

**...Wrong?**

A twinkling, pyramidal gemstone rose up from the storage space, rotating in a curved ellipse before falling back into place dangling over the Babies' extended noses. Stuffwell was curious.

"I do say...I have no idea what that is! Poppycock!"

The tykes were content to be nothing more than bespectacled by the sparkling shape's grandeur.

"It seems to be disposable, but...

It may ALSO be something of such absolute inconceivable, MINDBENDING value that we will be needing for the rest of our lifespans, but that's just an educated guess. It'd be best we take it with us to find out."

Thus, the shard was theirs, still glimmering in the red-tinted light. A passageway was made through the stockade, and the large red doors ahead of them also opened. Moreover, another blue pipe was waiting for them, slightly cleaner and polished, and through there they came about to the final castle area.

...Save album passage made, camera clicked, yada yada yada. The quartet persevered well enough through thick and thin by this point to have most castle extremities and amenities become dull and repetitive. All they wanted was a ticket out of here as they treaded an elevated stairway and went into a floral doorway where the time hole laid.

Laid there, too, was Toadsworth and the young Princess Peach, set atop a wide mat bearing a cartoonish face and enveloped by a bounty of toys and gift boxes. Quite the extoll-worthy and lavish playroom get-up, His Pompousness had. Nothing less than for the Prince!

Toadsworth shifted back. "Alright, are you? Well, splendid! Just, jolly good!"

Stuffwell scooted to the Toad's side. "Mario, Luigi, Babies..."

"That's undoubtedly the new time hole! BACK TO THE ADVENTURE...AT HAND!"

The fearsome twosome of the Marios jumped up in readiness, the senior half of them explaining why they should go right into a swirling vortex like it was a swimming pool. Nice analogy, Mario?

"Say what? You want us to jump into THAT? That's balderdash! Malarkey! You think I'd be that careless with the Mushroom Kingdom's princess in hand?"

Stuffwell tried to cut to the chase, although not as ably as someone with hands could do.

"C'mon now, it's about time we return to our era. With or without this blabbering ignoramus' attempts at apprehending our prevalent progress," having a straight face for someone who just slighted the person right next to him royally.

"You...why, you... E! I, uh, mean, SCOUNDREL, YOU! How DARE you call me such a person! I'd stuff you if I had the chance, you ca on it!"

The suitcase scoundrel in question smiled a bit before joining the Bros as they surged into the time hole, much to Toadsworth's dismay.

"HALT, halt I say! What foolishness! You are the REAL ignoramuses...(ignorami?) here! Get back here this INSTANT!"

Welp, there he went, straight through the portal with Peach in hand.

**Back to the Mushroom Kingdom Present...**

...Quite the adventurous time in the past Mario, Luigi, Stuffwell and the Babies had! I can only wonder what'll happen next as they prepare for some REAL incursions against the Shroob empire...things are going to get toasty!


	5. Christmas Interlude

Oh, ho ho! The time of the holidays has approached our dear lives, and I don't think I could be less joyous about it! Gift-giving, self-esteem sabotage, and some more storytime with our lovable Quartet! Let's see what festivities they engage in this time!

**Whistling through a time hole...back to the present...**

The Babies' schnozzes were whimsically wafting through the...(air? time particles?), their older selves' noggins not far behind them while Stuffwell still had his usual unimpressed face still plastered on him. They spun and spiraled, whirring across the time hole as each pair was parallel to each other, their suitcase sidekick extraordinaire perched somewhere in the middle. As their journey went on, the matter around them flashed a bit, becoming more wavy and erratic. Luigi, one hand slid against Baby Luigi's back as mandated by the difficult 'piggybacking' technique, swam towards the meandering substance with the other, intrigued, and partially bored. But, before he could haphazardly investigate, the flashes intensified, and poof, the Quartet was back in the Mushroom Kingdom present.

**Swoosh!**

They were smoothly ejected by the time hole in a buzz of stars and shimmering lights, a much similar performance to the first time the Bros. hopped in their one-way ticket to the past. Thankfully, there was also a two-way ticket to the present uncovered by our heroes at the tail end of Baby Bowser's castle, and with that, they were set down with minimal injury in the middle of a claustrophobic, very red room connecting to the courtyard ahead. Indulging in some block-smashing right behind them, the Bros. and Babies, anxious to use their hard-earned (quite literally) coins and items after a laborious journey.

**...Ooh La La.**

Positioned right in front of their very, very long noses (excluding Stuffwell) was an absolute cavalcade of holiday decor scattered all about the castle courtyard: a light red coat of paint covering the walls to beautifully contrast with the green foliage in the most Christmas-y of ways, baubles lining the plants and somehow not weighing them down by virtue of anti-gravity, stockings quilting the yard's edges and a variety of other December-time ornamentation that would make even the stingiest of interior designers bawl with satisfaction. The Quartet, too, had to wipe a few smidges of water off their untrained eyes as they became overwhelmed with all the color and charm of the place, even if only a few drops. Well, a bit more for Luigi, of course. His tear-less and storage-device compatriot took a good view at the whole building.

"Huh, I didn't expect such volatility in how fast time here progressed while we were in the past, mhm. Definitely something to expound upon with the Professor...speaking of which, we should consult him at once! Back to the adventure...AT HAND! (Now in the present!)"

After yet another writing of album entry and click of the camera, they traipsed into the castle insides, where adornment-density was ten fold it was outside, a flashy piece of work screaming 'DECEMBER HOLIDAY WITH PREDOMINANTLY RED AND GREEN COLORS' appearing at darn near every couple of inches. This certainly put off the pairs a bit, although in the end it was all still pretty to look at in the short-term. A more interesting matter was the reaction of the Toads fit in scarf and sweater (they must have boiled) to the newfound presence of the Babies, fluctuating from simple mutterings of 'ooh' and 'ah' from their undeniable emanation of cuteness to outright hysteria at what was possibly going wrong in the world. These both were justified actions in their own rights, albeit with completely different ulterior motives and cause-and-effect patterns behind them, of which are far too complicated to cover in this simple story. Ahem.

The tots, as one might suppose, ate this attention up a la a buffet spread, laughing and smiling to their heart's content, clearly enjoying this brave new world in their opening exposure to it. The Bros could not hesitate but to break out in their own silly chuckles and gratifying grins, seeing the Babies as more than just extra firepower or crawling burdens, but instead as a much-needed addition of spice into their lives as they had desired some newness and youthful vigor out of their recently-tedious quests and tasks. This glow of childlike innocence and curiosity had just started to even wipe off the rust of many an adventure, almost returning them to their carefree and fun-loving selves that they'd been during their first few delves into heroism. A bit of nostalgia even seeped into their remissful minds, Mario and Luigi embracing these few moments of jolly good fun.

...All good things (apparently) must come to an end, though, and Stuffwell was stern in his unmitigated fervor in getting the Quartet across the castle's arduous hallways and into the Professor's pertinent presence.

"C'mon, now!" the Suitcase budged, "We have SERIOUS work to do involving the strumming of vocal cords! Let's get a move-on."

Reluctantly coralled, sighing, the Brothers picked up the still-joyful juveniles and continued along their merry way, numerous passersby either ogling or yelping in shock at the puerile piggyback participants. That jubilant excess in the remembrance of their past would not easily let go of the Bros, as they strolled into the Professor's room with a bit more of a swagger, confidence plastered on them.

E. Gadd's chamber of supposedly research did indeed hold the man himself, along with an assisting Toad, both clad in aesthetic-conflicting warm-weather attire to go along with the room's unchanged look in comparison to the winter wonderland that the rest of the castle put off, as mandated by the Professor himself. This was relieving and shocking at the same time for the Quartet, who'd been oddly immersed and made familiar with the gaudy Christmas atmosphere that'd been present throughout everything they'd seen before, although still enjoying the fact that the architecture wasn't so saturated and garish...

Eh, enough with all the artsy stuff.

...The Bros and Babies waltzed over to the royal patchwork of Toads embedded on the rug, and, as usual, Mario hopped up and down to grab E. Gadd's attention from the green beast floating around in a water tank...wait, what?

The Professor neared the throne platform, and quickly faced back at the Fearsome Four, adjusting his glasses and clearing his muddy throat.

"Aye! Finally back, I see? And you've brought a few tykes with ya, have you?"

He ambled over to the center of the platform, right in front of the throne itself, which'd also not been decorated due to its seat-warmer's unfortunate...absence.

"Oh, I jest. Stuffwell dutifully informed me about your hauling around of those toddlers quite literally ages ago, but I did not expect them to be in crimson and emerald vintage, no sirree! Of course, he could of been a bit more descriptive about such a great discovery, but I'm not one to put blame, at least for now, heh heh."

Stuffwell winced a bit, but collected himself and begrudgingly kept himself from demanding a compensatory promotion.

"...Though, I do believe that burgundy and olive are the only possible hues for such a band of heroes, even in infantile form, hm? Oh, well, it still makes my old self gleeful to see youngster united with oldster for once, that's for sure."

Swallowing up his own pride (if suitcases could swallow), Stuffwell pounced on pressing matters.

"Professor, I MUST tell you of the Past Mushroom Kingdom's ELEPHANTINE difficulties at hand, and the peril its innocent denizens are forced to grapple with!"

Stroking his whiskers, hand put to chin, E. Gadd thought, and thought some more.

"Hrm, so it's confirmed. These darned Shroobs have made off with the Princess, have they?"

The Toad alongside him eloquently chimed in.

"We've GOT to do SOMETHING! I mean, c'mon, it's only the PRINCESS man, second (or was it third) most powerful person in the Mushroom Kingdom! Best cake-maker in the world! Yeah, even if she may be a gargantuan nag and ruin my fun at times, that's far from the point!

(..Even if the stockings are my pride and joy...mhm...)"

E. Gadd shifted towards the throne, taking even more of his sweet time to think things through.

"Hmm..."

The Tots took to scurrying off to the container holding the beast, of which looked like a literal UFO with a massive mouth, diamond-shaped eyes and stalky arms and legs wrapped up in Shroob-esque polka-dots, and gawking at it incessantly.

"Erm, Professor..." Stuffwell chattered, "...we also found THIS tucked up in an ornate chest back at young Bowser's Castle, all glistening and glimmering."

Stuffwell opening up, that's exactly what the Cobalt Shard did, oh, did I just say that out loud?

**Sssssting...sssssting...**

Its sparkling, in fact, was completely audible, the Shard looking far more glamorous when put against the brightness and peppiness of Peach's Castle.

"I feel deep remorse that I'm not able to identify this piece of importance," he 'sniffed,' "saddened by the fact I don't have it stashed in my illustrous database."

The Shard drifted up to high above E. Gadd's face, as he opened his mouth wide in flabbergastion.

**"YOWZERS! WOW!"**

It took a good bit for the man to regain his breath.

"That's none other than a Cobalt Star Shard, the time machine's very fuel source! I can only wonder...how'd it get stuck in Bowser's Castle? And why's it broken!?"

In the middle of the Professor's ramblings, the Shard sauntered over to right next to the beast's container, its shine reflecting off the glass and clearly having an...effect on the Shrooboid. There, the Babies' attention was clearly focused on something differentiating from Stuffwell and E. Gadd's expository rants. They were about to pay the price for that.

**"YOW!"**

The Taters' howling of an abbreviated form of the Professor's trademark catchphrase, along with some predictable panic from the Professor himself, did happen for a reason (if not that would just be bad writing), the beast going into a dual physical-audio frenzy, sputtering around and screaming in its crammed tank.

"Good golly! The Shard's driving that Shroob simply bonkers!" E. Gadd adequately explained the situation.

Meanwhile, Baby Luigi took to, what else, perpetual sobbing and the uttering of 'MAMA!', as the Shard etched itself further west close to E. Gadd. Caring to his cuddly companion, Luigi gave him a good ol' stationary piggyback ride, even if his specifications as a 'MAMA!' were dubious at best, although a cursory background check might prove otherwise.

Finally, the Shard perched itself on the platform, bouncing a bit before settling down and concluding its reign of terror in the form of twinkling.

**"...Hmmmmmmmmstmmmmmmm..."**

**"...Could it be..."**

**"...Yep, it could..."**

...That bout of cognitive jargon was not for nothing, it seemed.

". . ." the Professor calmed himself.

**"There's a link between the Cobalt Star Shards and the Shroob marauders!"**

He received a motley of facial retorts in the form of eye-widenings, mouth-openings, eyebrow elevations and hand movements, all in the effort of intrigue, though.

The Toad postured, fingers firmly grasping where he'd positively want some whiskers to be.

"Maybe if we find s'more of these dinky shards, we'll be able to best those purple brutes once and for all!"

The abject gesturing of the Quartet changed little. E. Gadd heeded the nifty idea.

"Possibly, possibly..."

Impatience seeping through his mushroom-y body, the Toad jumped a bit for Mario's attention.

"Mario, you're, like, the MAN! You gotta, GOTTA do it! Find those shiny shards and rescue the Princess like old times!"

Not the one to make overly-complicated faces, and, having a semi-poker-face himself, he responded with a simple nod.

...The Shard, still, was not done with its shenanigans, careening upwards and flying over to a room southwest of the group. Causing a loud ruckus, enough to make the Quartet fraught with worry, but then soon returning to the throne room and being snugly tucked away back in Stuffwell.

"Mhm, by virtue of experience and NOT dark magic, I'd beg to say that the fuss over there just created a brand new time hole! Not only that, it may be because that our Sharc is fiddling around with OTHER shards deep in the past, and that there's another shard just beckoning for us through the time hole! Mario, Luigi, your younger selves, get cracking at finding the Cobalt Star Shards, and report back to me each time!" E. Gadd was keen for the guys to get going.

"HOLD IT!" Stuffwell commanded, the Bros and Babies freezing in their own movement. "I have my own conjecture to expose you to, but I assure it will be of the utmost significance!"

The Quartet could not muster to hold in a collective groan.

"I have observed that, while we entered the past deep in the fall, we've suddenly come back in the midst of winter! That CANNOT be a coincidence, and I can only clarify the disparity in time flying due to the so-called 'warping' of time that we endure with the time holes. Therefore, a faster pace is ABSOLUTELY necessary for our missions from now on, wouldn't you agree, Professor?"

Fondling his glasses a bit, E. Gadd's head moved up and down approvingly.

"We mustn't risk unforeseen problems like, oh, I don't know, BOWSER coming up and ruining our plans swiftly. So, no more dilly-dallying or detouring for the sake of coins or items, that's an ORDER.

The Bros hesitantly putting their thumbs up, the Babies just rolling their eyes, overall they were happy that all this talking was over, and that they could finally get back into their much-anticipated adventure once more-

"Ahem, I almost forgot! In the spirit of the season, I have handy-dandy presents for the four of you! Badges! Take a look!"

The old man laid out a bunch of (unwrapped, mind you, the meanie) badges of large and small sizes right for the Quartet to glare at, Stuffwell especially jumping for joy.

"...Oh, YES, yes yes, I am a MAJOR badge enthusiast and collector all around! I will be DELIGHTED to teach you the ins and outs of these both stylish AND effective chest garments!"

The Bros and Babies looked a bit startled by Stuffwell's sudden surge of passion, but shrugged it off and went along with it.

"You see, each badge is made specifically for either a Bro or a Baby, with differing benefits and boons tied to a specific badge! Say, you can increase the might of your boot! Or, if you're feeling dangerous, salvage more coins from enemies! Oh, the possibilities are near endless, and I'm sure you'll eventually become ALMOST as appreciative of these neat doohickeys as I am!"

...Eyeing Stuffwell like he was an ugly Christmas sweater for a moment, they put on the badges and actually welcomed the extra bit of pizzazz they added to their attire and possible improvements to their experience of adventure overall. Despite this, after all the diatribes and tirades, they REALLY wanted to get back in action.

E. Gadd leaned against the wall, reclining.

"Now then, for now I'll just keep up my research, notably analyzing the Shroob next to me.

By the by, the Shroom Shop opened recently, filled with goodies for you to spend your coins on! Perhaps that can be an alternative to your massacre of blocks from now on, hm?"

Taking this advice to heart, the Quartet took a quick detour into the shops, and they sure didn't disappoint.

Having a bit less focus on Christmas flair and moreso on stuffing deals down unsuspecting customers' throats (although that may be classified under 'Christmas flair' as well), the 'Shroom Shop' was a bit of a cramped outlet, a desk smacked into the north of the room with nicely set out racks of gear and items to the south. The cashiers themselves were the obvious coin-hecklers, taking up every morsel of time they had with the Quartet to wax poetic about 3-for-1s and 50%-offs. The Bros, very much used to this cutthroat capitalism, safely navigated through the cashiers' facade, purchasing a bevvy of mushrooms, herbs, and slacks and jeans of wildly differing comfortability. The Bros. Items, though, were the crown jewel of their investments, newfangled 'Cannonballers' (simply put, a BIG cannon) and Fire Flowers (self-explanitory, mhm). But, they didn't take long, starving to return to their adventurous ways sooner or later.

...Arriving at the time hole in question, which was conveniently placed in Toadsworth's room, the Quartet rubbed ther hands together in unison, further baddie-stumping and puzzle-stumping at their doorstep. No indecision for them this time, they just jumped in.

**"...CRIMINAL!"**

A stuffy, aged voice erupted. The pitter-pattering of a few brown polka-dot Toads came to the edge of the time hole.

"THIEF! That fine child you're holding, sir! She's the Princess of this Kingdom, is she not?" The older Toadsworth babbled.

The two dawdled around the portal to the past further.

**"KEEP YOUR DISTANCE!"**

"You have not the pedigree to address Her most-Royal Highness!" A more middle-aged Toadsworth asserted.

"In the mere time she's been gone, she's somehow shrunk so small! Now, THIS is why I was so averse to that FOUL time device!" The senior one persisted, forcing his opposite's back against the wall.

**"...Someone, Anyone! Heeeelp!"**

**"Princess!"**

S'more scurrying.

**"CRIMINAL!"**

Some jumping.

"Help, ANYBODY! Is there not a soul in this castle?"

He sprinted off.

"Princess!"

A feisty jog followed.

**...Here we go!**

Now, the Quartet is to endure their second foray into the past! Many more moments, mysteries and maladies are sure to be had! And, before that happens, I'll take my time to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays (assuming you're reading this in late December)!

...Seeya next decade!


End file.
